Voom Box Version V00.05.08. Bugs/Problems/Feature Request

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Hello everyone.... I got my Voom installed 2/28/04 and would like to know what is the latest firmware ..Mine is 5.08 ...Had one lock up last night. Rebooted it and was ok.

Do I need a new reciever or do I need a new upgrade firmware?
 
pdqbobe said:
Hello everyone.... I got my Voom installed 2/28/04 and would like to know what is the latest firmware ..Mine is 5.08 ...Had one lock up last night. Rebooted it and was ok.

Do I need a new reciever or do I need a new upgrade firmware?

pdqbobe,

welcome. You have the correct firmware. Regarding the lockup keep monitoring. I would not change it for one lock up. If it becomes a problem then yes.
 
Had my Voom installed this past weekend and have really enjoyed the
variety of HD content they offer. I will have to re-think my D* service now.
I have mine connected via DVI to HDMI on my Pioneer Elite 1110 plasma.
All I can say is WOW!!!

2 questions please:
1) How do I pull up the menu for fine tuning my OTA antenna?
2) How do I pull up my version # and what is the most current?

Thanks in advance,
Martin
 
1) How do I pull up the menu for fine tuning my OTA antenna?

1-Make sure to tune to the OTA channel that you are trying to fine tune.
2-Press big VOOM button.
3-Press small gree button to get you to the system settings menu.
4-Scroll to system settings and select
5-Choose system status #7
6-You will get a page that has different pages. Scroll down until you get to the system status channel page.

Here's a picture of it: System Status Channel Page

This will tell you the off air signal strength and quality.

2) How do I pull up my version # and what is the most current?

As you scroll through the system status page you will see a page that has the software version.
 
Thank you Sean!

Is it standard to show "Off Air Signal Power 0"?
I believe my OTA antenna has a power injector at the receiver end.

What is the most current vers#?
 
zmwp01 said:
Thank you Sean!

Is it standard to show "Off Air Signal Power 0"?
I believe my OTA antenna has a power injector at the receiver end.

What is the most current vers#?

Current software version is V00.05.08.

If the OTA channel is off air then, yes "0" will be standard. The injector (as you call it) might be the diplexor. Are you getting all the OTA channels that you are supposed to get?


diap3s.jpg
 
Sean Mota said:
Current software version is V00.05.08.

If the OTA channel is off air then, yes "0" will be standard. The injector (as you call it) might be the diplexor. Are you getting all the OTA channels that you are supposed to get?


diap3s.jpg
I chose not to use the diplexer and have direct coaxs for the LNB and OTA.
The power injector is for the Stealth amplifier.
I am missing PBS - 38 from my local map but the rest seem to be there.
 
Sean Mota said:
Current software version is V00.05.08.

If the OTA channel is off air then, yes "0" will be standard.

I would expect "Off Air Signal Quality" to be 0 for no signal
but I figured the "Off Air Signal Power" was maybe for the
antenna power.
 
zmwp01 said:
I chose not to use the diplexer and have direct coaxs for the LNB and OTA.
The power injector is for the Stealth amplifier.
I am missing PBS - 38 from my local map but the rest seem to be there.


Ok. Send me an email to Sean_Mota@satelliteguys.us with your full name, address and zipcode and let me know which station you are not getting. Did you try to see if the channel was already mapped or not.

check here and let me know in your email

http://tvlistings4.zap2it.com/cabdbs/grid.asp?partner_id=cabdbs
 
Ilya said:
I've found another bug (or two) in the satellite channel mapping. Here are the steps to reproduce the problem:

1. Tune to one of the following channels: 204, 206, 226, 229, 261, or 262 (any channel with 1309.375 frequency).
2. Using the usual "9-8-8" trick, get to the hidden menu (where you do factory resets).
How do I do this trick, is it a remote trick, or is it somthing done on the receiver itself?
 
Ilya said:
3. Select the first menu item "manual tuning."
(For a moment you will see "Left_Horiz" polarity selected, and then the check-mark will jump to "Right_Ve". I believe this is a bug itself: It looks like most of the VOOM's channels are set to "Right_Ve" polarity, except for these select channels, which are set to "Left_Horiz" polarity, but the program doesn't show that.)

All of the transponders that VOOM are using are Right polarity, except for one, this one. So that is correct. Setting it to Right polarity, sends a signal to the LNBF to switch to Right polarity and then the VOOM box decodes the resulting signal at a different frequency, coming from a different transponder, which just happen to map to the mentioned channels.

There is a similar trick for 4DTV C-Band users to get hidden channels on their big dishes.
 
Ok.. I have several suggestions.

Transparent menus/guide. This is my main issue, and I'm 100% shocked that it isn't a feature. I have never heard one word about it, so assumed it would be transparent.This is going to burn into my TV without a doubt. There's no stopping it at this point because the solid yellow letters, symbols, and the very solid black line.

Quicker channel changes: Changing the channel takes 2.5-4 seconds everytime. I see a grey screen while waiting, then it comes down, there is also slight pixelation on movement for the instant the channel comes on.

Guide change 1: When looking further down in time, when I want to see another channel at the future time, I shouldn't need to manually go there everytime for each seperate channel. If I'm in future time and press up/down, it should not go back to current time.

Guide change 2: Manually enter channels in the one line guide. If I try to enter a channel # to look at by typing it in... it goes to that channel instead of just bringing the guide there.

Guide change 3: Quicker scrolling through the one line guide... I get about 3/second. That is way too slow considering I can't manually enter in the channel # I'd like to see on the guide. If you hold it down it should zoom through them at a much faster pace.

SD change: There are only two options for watching SD content on widescreen TVs. Stretch and pillarbox... there should be a crop mode(pan and scan) for watching SD letterboxed movies, or for those that don't mind losing the top and bottom of the image.

Remote: An exit button... I hate pressing back 4-5 times to get from the menus back to watching TV. On D* I press exit at any time, from any menu, and I'm back to watching TV without any graphics on the screen. I like that a lot.

Guide: A quicker way to get to the 5 line guide... as of now you need to press the voom/blue button, and then select all channels, or just HD etc... there should be a single button to bring you to the last used one, or just to all channels, or have it selectable which one you want it to go to from a menu.

Guide: Whole screen guide... the biggest one I can find is 5 lines, and with the page +/- button it does move quickly, but a full screen option would be nice.

Remote/info button: When watching TV, there are TONS of ways to get the one line guide to come up, so pressing info once should give you the info of the show you're on, or currently at on the guide. You shouldn't need to press it to bring up the one line guide, then another time to see the program description.

shortcuts on the remote: IE: on my D* remote, I press action 8 to change the stretch mode without going into menus. This would be a nice feature to have.

Basically in my opinion: More like DirecTV. Considering the E86 I use is so old, I figured Voom would be even better... but it definently seems much less user friendly.

Also, is there any way to control stereo volume instead of TV volume with the remote? With digital audio... not many TVs have digital inputs and outputs, so most are stuck with keeping another remote nearby to change volumes for the stereo. I don't use my TV speakers, so I think using the remote to change your stereo volume would be a good thing.
 
Now for bugs:

On some SD channels, I notice some heavy white scratches appearing a lot. Some Sd channels are fine, other have this problem. Not sure how to explain, but they are about 1-2 pixels tall, and 10-15 wide, and are very frequent on brighter colors like solid green and red. I've never seen anything like this before.

I notice some pixelation when changing channels at times, usually on a moving head.

Also, when changing channels, I occasionally get a temporary message saying you cannot purchase this Pay-per-view, and then the channel picture comes on.

Lastly... while watching Rocky III on TMC, without pressing the remote, it acted as if I touched the Voom button, brining me to the main menu.
 
Brent said:
New member, glad to find some Voomers!
Got connected last Tuesday, it's great to put my DLP set to use. I was an early DirecTV adopter also, but I have to say Voom is a little rough around the edges. My 7 year old Sony receiver with it's original firmware is still ahead of the Voom unit with respect to intuative menu functions and channel surfing capabilities. I am hoping this will be updated soon. This is a disapointment for me because I really expected a "best of breed" receiver with all of the lessons learned on the DirecTV and Dish network units out there.
Brent

Exactly how I feel... I expected it to be at least on par with what others have to offer. But it seems like it's much less advanced then them. No need to re-invent the wheel by making it not so round.
 
" notice some pixelation when changing channels at times, usually on a moving head."

This is a known issue Voom is working on.as long as it goes away right away, it's not really much of a problem I guess.

"also when changing channels, I occasionally get a temporary message saying you cannot purchase this Pay-per-view, and then the channel picture comes on."

Another known issue, it happens to me too. I know it's annoying but I'm sure Voom is working on this one also.

"lastly... while watching Rocky III on TMC, without pressing the remote, it acted as if I touched the Voom button, brining me to the main menu."

Go to the options menu, and go to Screen saver set up, and turn it off! This won't happen again after doing so.
 
Thanks. None of these are serious issues to me. Just things I noticed.

I got all of this from only watching for a couple hours... I'm sure I will have more as I go on. :)
Should I email voom my recommendations also, or does this thread serve that purpose of getting suggestions/bugs noticed?
 
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